Currently, there are many methods of cleaning tooth gaps that range from toothpick to flossers which can all substantially realize the cleaning purpose. A toothpick is an elongated device with a pointed end, whereby the waste and food particles are removed by moving the pointed end through the tooth gaps. A flosser is a linear object, whereby waste and food particles in the tooth gaps are removed by putting the flosser through the tooth gaps when tightly griping two ends of the flosser. Yet, the above methods are difficult to implement so that inconvenience is caused to a user.
There are a lot of known technologies in the market targeted at the above problems. One is the US 2003/0098037 entitled (“Dental Floss Device” published on May 29, 2003, wherein a user can tightly grip the handle of the floss device in cooperation with the floss element on the top, such that the floss element goes into the oral cavity to remove food particles in tooth gaps. Besides, only a small length of floss needs to be used on the floss element to achieve the same effect. But, the above floss element can only be assembled to the top of the handle in horizontal direction so that a user cannot adjust the direction of the floss according to the configuration of the oral cavity to remove food particles in the gaps between different teeth. The problem of inconvenience cannot be totally solved.
In view of the problem in the above device, another prior art is US 2005/0092346 entitled “Flosser apparatus with Detachable and Adjustable Floss Element” on May 5, 2005. The flosser apparatus can not only achieve the above effect but also solve the shortcoming that the floss element can only be assembled to the top of the handle in horizontal direction. Its cross-shaped floss element base cooperates with cross-shaped floss element connecting slot to adjust the direction of the floss element so that a user can adjust the direction of the floss according to the structure of the oral cavity to remove food particles in the gaps between different teeth. On the other hand, the configuration of the floss element base cooperates with the configuration besides the floss element connecting slot to cause a pressing force to allow the floss element arms to open to tension a length of floss between the floss element arms for ease of a user's use. However, the design thereof utilizes a third type of lever such as used in forceps, roasting clamps, chopsticks, that is, the point of force application is between the tension points and the pivot point, the pivot point is at the bottom of the floss element, and the point of force application is at the bottom of the floss element arms in the middle of the floss element. Besides, the positions where the top portions of the floss element open the floss are the tension points. The point of force application of this kind of lever is sure to be nearer to the pivot point than the tension points. So the apparatus requires a lot of user's force so that it is not desirable in opening the floss element arms. Moreover, after the floss element is mounted onto the floss element connecting slot, the floss element arms be detached for replacement purpose. The sole method is to firstly tightly grip the floss element arms, then draw hard. In this manner, the floss element arms are easily broken. The apparatus is not convenient in use, so the above problems are not completely solved.